| Icelandic Sheepdogs Our Kennel Proudly breeds to the FCI (DIF) CKC Breed Standard, this standard is the one used in all FCI countrys and is the same word for word in Canada at the CKC. Only the ISAA and the AKC at this time have a different Standard, and while our dogs certainly meet their Standard, we are honored to be breeding to the standard given to us by the mother country of our breed "Iceland" We are thrilled to be breeding both Short and Long Coat Icelandic Sheepdogs In the Icelandic Sheepdog Breed, the Long Coat is Recessive, so two long coated Icelandic Sheepdogs will have litters of all Long coats. I regret to say that some breeders in different country's mainly only breed Long coats, this is such a sad thing as the short coats are so much easier to keep in terms of Grooming, but I will admit that its much easier to hide structure faults in long coated dogs, also the long coated puppies are cute teddy bears and so they sell better. If you want to show med coated Icelandic Sheepdogs, (which I do), you need to have wonderful structure. All my short coated Icelandic Sheepdogs carry the long coat, and so all my litters have a mix of coat types. In terms of Coat Colors, I am breeding for Dark Reds, Dark Chincilla's, and Black an Silver Tricolors, and Born Creams(like the color of a yellow lab). I do not breed Chocolate Icelandic Sheepdogs, I have not choosen to add this color to my kennel as I personally have concerns about certain health issues that seem to be coming with the color in our breed, so until more is known, I will choose to not breed with this color at this time. Also the Chocolate gene lightens the eye color on their non-chocolate Offspring, and I have wonderful dark brown eye color in my lines to date and want to keep it that way. In terms of White Pattern, as in all things I follow the standard in this regards, I always breed for some degree of white markings- It can be as low as a few white socks, to as high as patches of the color on the body, as long as the color is at least covering 50% of the body, I never knownly breed to produce Extreme Whites as this color pattern in the Icelandic Sheepdog as in so many breeds leads to deafness in a percentage of the puppies that are produced. Ideally my Icelandic Sheepdogs have white sock of different heights, Collars, Blazes or split faces, white tail tips etc. We have worked hard over the years to import Top Bloodlines from Iceland an Europe. We are also thrilled to work with bloodlines from Pineridge Icelandic Kennel in B.C. and Belglen Kennel in Sask. We have also used imported Icelandic Studs living in the United States, and will continue to use Studs from across N.A. if we feel that it will help our breeding programs. At this time, we are currently working three Different Bloodlines, and family groups in our kennel, while we strive to create and breed sound type and structure with good temperment in all our litters. The Gene pool is small within our breed and because we were able to bring in some rare bloodlines, we are working different imported lines in the way we feel is best for each family pool. We are thrilled to now be on our Second, Third or Fourth Canadian Generation depending on what line you are looking at. I have been very lucky to have some amazing foundation dogs Pineridgeicelandic Vaskur Tofra Tobba Traustidottir Folda CGN HI TPOC Tofra Dalla Hecktordottir Ch Belglen Runa of Greenstone Our goals are breeding Icelandic Sheepdogs that meet the FCI - CKC breed Standard, Sound Structure, Stunning Breed Type, Good health and a Winning and WONDERFUL temperment. I have been Blessed in being able to travel to Europe to meet many more dogs in person then most Icelandic Sheepdog Breeders in N.A. have, because of this I feel that I have a good understanding that you must look to the international community for breed mentors. I am honored to have long term Icelandic Sheepdog Breeder mentors in both Iceland and Europe. New Info.... There has been an alarming number of reports within the general ISD ownership of reactive/over barking dogs. This is a very big concern to me, I firmly believe that there has been enough proof in studies that reactive dogs can produce reactive puppies. It has been a goal of mine for years now to breed towards a quieter dog, as most homes in Canada or United States would perfer a quieter dog, now I don't mean barking while working sheep or barking to annouce vistors, this is normal. I am talking about the folks that say their dogs bark an bark at nothing an for no reason. I have heard the talk that the barking goes with the herding, and I personally don't agree, I have quiet dogs at home that work with the sheep/ducks daily and they are not barky, when we do the temperment tests on the puppies, the working drives are NOT linked to barking in any way, therefor you can have a active well-bred ISD that has good working ability and drive and is NOT Barky! This is a goal to work towards within my own kennel. The second thing I noticed is that I don't have this issue with my own puppies that I have raised into adults and I was trying to figure out what I was doing differently. Here are the reason's I have come up with to date. a) I train my puppies from nine weeks old in puppy class that when on leash, there is NO playing with other dogs, and because I have my own pack of dogs, the puppies learn to play within the pack. This means that folks that have only one or two ISD puppies tend to take them to puppy playdates. I often hear this comment (when off-leash and playing the dogs are fine, but on leash the dog is lunging and barking like mad) in truth, this appears to me, that the dogs need to learn from puppyhood, that on leash, there is NO playing with other dogs that its all about you as a team. b) If at all possable, I will not breed from reactive dogs, and now that I am on my second and third generations of Greenstone dogs, it means that I have been able to keep back puppies that are not born reactive. This can be very hard, I have at times kept back a lovely ISD puppy only to realize that at six to eigth months of age that they are not as stable as I would like, and I have made the hard call to alter the dog and place it into a loving family home. Having said that, I appear to be one of the few that will do this, (often I hear folks say, well I just want one litter to get my money back or to get a new puppy back and then I will place the mother or father because I can't live with them in terms of temperment) This does not makes any sense to me, if I don't like the dogs temperment, then I don't want to breed with it! c) I line breed, (please note, I did not say inbreed) and because I do choose to linebreed, this means that I have a much better understanding of the temperments within the given family lines that I am working with. I have a good idea of the overall temperments being produced in my lines as I have temperment tested all my litters over the years and also because I do a puppy herding temperment test. I believe that because I linebreed, I produce more dogs with the same temperment, and they are more likely to have the same body type, coat type, and temperment as their parents. When you breed for a 0 Coefficient that appears to be the "Fad" currently, you have no idea what you will be getting in your litter in many ways, you have less control over what health issues will appear, what type will appear, what temperment will appear. I have respect for breeders that are willing to take this risk with their breeding programs. However I am more comfortable linebreeding. |
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